The world's diamond industry is about to explode into anarchy. In the frozen north of Archangel, a new mine is yielding the most beautiful and rare stone in the world - the red diamond. And Karakov, the greatest and wiliest jeweller the industry has ever seen, is about to sign an exclusive agreement with Moscow. From all over the world the directors of Diamond Enterprises gather to try and stop Karakov destabilizing the diamond trade. But there is deceit and betrayal even within their own group. For Julius Heyderman is determinded to destroy his life-long enemy, the man who runs the British end of the business, Arthur Harris. All the members of the board have their tortured secrets - Reece, Heyderman's right-hand man, is locked into a relationship he cannot control; Kruger has dumped his wife of thirty years for his secretary, Ruth Fraser; and Ray Andrews, who is being sent back to Moscow to try to salvage the deal he botched five years before. And then there is James Hastings, young, aggressive, burningly ambitious. James is prepared to sacrifice everything to succeed - everything except his beautiful aristocratic wife. Elizabeth is his Achilles' heel. And behind the panic-driven plots of Diamond Enterprises looms the spectre of Karakov, Russian by descent, the most brilliant plotter of them all.